For nearly three decades the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has fostered regional cooperation on behalf of the marine and coastal environment. It has accomplished this by stimulating the creation of 'Action Plans'– prescriptions for sound environmental management – for each region. These include a series of regional Conventions – unique legal instruments designed to protect shared environmental interests.

But perhaps UNEP's most long-lasting accomplishments in the Regional Seas is the creation of regional mechanisms for cooperation between governments and commitment to shared goals.